Mark Leslie is a writer, editor and bookseller who lives in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2005, Mark joined the blogging bandwagon and started posting random thoughts and musings on writing, bookselling and being a father.

Friday, September 20, 2013

I recently worked with my publisher to create a Goodreads giveway for SPOOKY SUDBURY.

It works relatively simply. You determine how many copies of a book you want to ship (it has to be a physical book), WHERE you want to ship it and how long the contest will run. Goodreads then has to approve it and if so, it's live.

When I contacted my publicist about it, he said, sure, Dundurn would ship 5 copies to any address in Canada. (Spooky Sudbury is a regional title, focusing on ghost, UFO and supernatural creature stories set in or near Sudbury, Ontario).

We had 197 people enter the contest. The winners were drawn earlier this week.

Yesterday I popped down to Dundurn's office to sign copies of the winning entries and they are being mailed out today.

Laura Harris (editor), Mark Leslie (author), Jim Hatch (publicist)

I had the pleasure of getting to meet my amazing editor (Laura Harris) and awesome publicist (Jim Hatch) in person. One of the things I love about Dundurn is that the people there are wonderfully supportive. Yes, I toil in the indie-publishing world, and also release self-published products. But I also enjoy working with a great publisher, too. I find that there is much to be gained by embracing both traditional publishing and self-publishing ventures.

Laura was a fantastic editor to work with - she helped Jenny and I take the book from a really good original draft to something really great. She made insightful suggestions, asked great questions, pointed out modifications that would make it even better and kept things on track. And Jim has been tirelessly working at various angles to get some spotlight on the book -- so far, I'll be doing two radio spots and one television spot next Friday when I'm in town. And there's more great promo opps coming.

The results of the giveway are that 103 people added SPOOKY SUDBURY to their Goodreads libraries (only 7 of them are Goodreads friends). Getting
your book added to folk's libraries by getting them to add it to their "To
Read" and even better, their "Read" library, help aid in the discovery of a title. Of course, getting people to rate and review the boo, help best of all. But it all adds up.

SPOOKY SUDBURY is being released officially next week. Jenny and I will be signing copies at the Chapters in Sudbury from 11 AM to 1 PM on Saturday September 28th. Then we're heading over to the Coles New Sudbury from 2 PM until 5 PM. Here's a link to the event on Facebook.

During the conversation, Margaret began discussing the Wattpad novel (The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home) she had co-authored with Naomi Alderman of Zombies, Run! (an absolutely wonderful GPS-based interactive running app). They ended up having a little side-bar conversation in which Atwood explained how a character could get out of a perilous seemingly dead-end situation being trapped in a cabin with a ravenous zombie trying to break in.

Roe instructed bloggers to take the time to get to know one of the
people who died and to celebrate and remember their lives rather than
focus on the tragedy that befell them that fateful day.

I still love the
fact that the focus of this blog meme wasn't on the horror, but on celebrating the lives,
the people they had been before 9/11.

Here are my own links to three individuals that I focused on learning a bit about and sharing. Ever year, on this anniversary, I re-read the posts, think
about the lives they lived and the differences they made before those lives were ended.

Friday, September 06, 2013

I spent 5 wonderful years working at McMaster University for the campus store formerly known as "Titles Bookstore." McMaster was a fantastic place to work, the people, both at the bookstore as well as the amazing staff and faculty that I got to know while I was there were amazing, and it is an opportunity and experience I cherish.

I am delighted, next week, to return to my old McMaster stomping grounds as part of a pretty amazing multidisciplinary celebration of Robert J. Sawyer's archival donation to the University Library Collection.

In honour of Rob's generous donation, the university is hosting a special three day conference entitled Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre from Friday September 13th through Sunday September 15th.

Special guests at the conference (apart from Robert J. Sawyer) include John Robert Colombo, Julie E. Czerneda, David G. Hartwell, Élisabeth Vonarburg, Robert Charles Wilson, and Chris Szego.

Never mind the amazing content and people involved, but get this: The conference is FREE.

I am delighted to be doing a talk and presentation called "Digital Pi: The Transcendence of Digital Publishing" -- I will be sharing some of the things that I have learned, in over twenty years of bookselling, about how digital technology is allowing authors, publishers, academics, students and readers amazing opportunities to share and explore the world around them in bold new ways. I will, of course, be talking about the Espresso Book Machine at McMaster, how publishers and universities have embraced a "deliver digital / print local" methodology, how innovative publishers are evolving to embrace eBooks and other born-digital projects that take publishing to exciting new levels.

And I will, of course, tie much of my thoughts back to the writings of Robert. J. Sawyer. I mean, the man owns virtually every eBook reader known to mankind and has been doing readings off of a handheld digital device of one form or another for as long as I can remember.

Rob doing a reading from his novel WATCH on an ereader March 31, 2010 at Titles Bookstore

When I was at McMaster and working on various POD experimental projects in publishing, such as CAMPUS CHILLS, an all original anthology of Canadian horror stories set on campuses across Canada by some of Canada's most amazing writers of dark fiction and printed and launched on the EBM's at McMaster, Waterloo and University of Alberta bookstores, Rob was an avid supporter of the project, and wrote a wonderful introduction for the book.

Rob has given so much to the science fiction and academic communities. It will be a special thrill and an honour to participate in an event that celebrates him and his donation to a wonderful university.

About Me

Mark Leslie (Lefebvre) is a Canadian author of speculative fiction and paranormal non-fiction, a bookseller and an advocate for books, eBooks and digital technology within publishing. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.